[Alpha Biz=(Chicago) Reporter Kim Jisun] Choi Hee-moon, vice chairman of Meritz Securities Co., was selected as a witness for the parliamentary audit.

Vice Chairman Choi Hee-moon will take the witness stand for the second time among the current CEOs of securities firms, following Hong Won-sik, CEO of Hi Investment & Securities.

According to the National Assembly on the 11th, the National Policy Committee of the National Assembly held a plenary session later in the day and voted on an agenda requiring the attendance of witnesses and witnesses for the parliamentary audit. At the plenary session, 19 witnesses from the Fair Trade Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, and the Personal Information Protection Committee and two witnesses were confirmed. A total of 13 people, including 12 witnesses and one reference, were called to the Financial Supervisory Service's on-site parliamentary inspection on the 17th.

In the securities industry, Vice Chairman Choi Hee-moon, who was expected to adopt additional witnesses, was listed. Choi has been leading Meritz Securities for more than a decade since taking the helm in 2010. He is setting the longest CEO record in the securities industry.

The reasons for Vice Chairman Choi's newspaper and reasons for his application, announced by the National Policy Committee, are listening to testimony related to the suspension of the sale of Ewha Electro-Mechanics Group, and listening to testimony related to insider trading of private equity convertible bonds (CB) and private equity bonds with warrant (BW). Meritz Securities sold its entire stake in Ewha Electro-Mechanics just before May 10, when the three Ewha Group companies were suspended from trading, sparking suspicions of using undisclosed important information.

Meritz Securities announced on May 10 that it disposed of all 26.49 million shares of Ewha Electro-Mechanics, which have a 32.22% stake, immediately after the suspension of trading. The sale period was from May 4 to 10, and Meritz Securities exercised its right to acquire new shares secured by investing in KRW 40 billion worth of bonds issued by Ewha Electro-Mechanics in October 2021.

Meritz Securities also sold all of its shares of Ewha Electro-Mechanics group EID, including 10,626,992 shares on April 18 that acquired BW. Meritz Securities is estimated to have collected about 33 billion won from the sale of shares of Ewha Electro-Mechanics (about 10 billion won) and EID (about 23 billion won).

 

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